Iowa – Day 1

Our flight arrived late a little after 5pm and I was excited about being back in Iowa. I had missed all my new blogging friends as well as the farmers and and everyone I had met.

Our hotel reservations where at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott. (Photo from Marriott site)

Overall we enjoyed our stay here. The rooms where nice and spacious, but my only complaint was the walls are really thin. There was a wedding at the hotel and both nights we where woken up around 2:30am by slamming doors and loud drunk people. A quick phone call to the front desk resulted in security knocking on doors within 5 minutes and silence after that.

After a quick freshen up we headed to meet everyone down at the lobby and head to dinner.

They had arranged dinner at Dos Rios. I was so excited to be around other bloggers again so I wouldn’t be the only person at the table photographing my food!

We where in a private room and had a buffet style food, so I can’t speak much for the menu except for the pulled roasted chicken and pulled pork are really good. We also had the meatballs which are not pictured, but they where good as well.

The restaurant makes their own flavored chips and fresh guacamole. We also had three salsas – traditional tomato salsa, sweet verde and pico de gallo. Everything is really yummy!

For dessert we tried the DULCE DE LECHE CHEESECAKE (Sweet caramel cheesecake in a graham cracker crust, topped with whipped cream). I really loved this rich dessert!

I did have a margarita which I didn’t get a picture of, and several other people had tried some of their cocktails. We all agreed that they make them strong here.

After catching up with everyone and eating a fabulous meal we headed back to our hotel and hit the sack with great excitement of the day ahead of us.

Marriott Residence Inn

We recently had a major renovation done at our house. I say renovation, but it’s more like replacing the plumbing for half of my house because of an installation problem when they built our house 3 years ago. Anyway we had to move out of our house for 3 weeks and when looking for a hotel we tried to find one that felt a little more like a home then a cheesy hotel room. We found a Marriott Residence Inn near by.

Here’s a tour of the room. I have to say it was really laid out nicely.

Breakfast was always a nice surprise. They had the staples of make your own Texas shaped waffles, yogurt, yogurt parfaits, oatmeal with topping bar, choices of breads and bagels, cereal, fresh cut fruit, whole fruit, eggs, chocolate muffins and blueberry muffins. Then every morning they try to change it up by offering a specialty item such as breakfast burritos, eggs Florentine, egg sandwiches and more.  For drinks there’s, orange juice, cranberry juice, apple juice, milk and water. Overall I really enjoyed the variety and how they change up the specialty dishes everyday.

Monday thru Thursday from 5:30pm to 7:30pm they offer what they call a evening social which includes complimentary beer, wine and appetizers which has a different theme everyday. This is a nice added bonus if you’re on a budget and in need of a cheap dinner option. I was surprised at how many options they have, usually always a cheese platter, and at least 3 different options. Here’s a sample of what they had one day:

Overall I really liked this hotel and can’t wait to stay at another location. Be sure you check their site and sign up for their rewards card.